Khapper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (March 2010) |
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) |
The Khappers were employed by the kahals to fulfill the recruit quotas imposed on the Jewish communities from 1827 to 1857 in the Russian Empire.
The Khappers were employed to kidnap Jewish boys (sometimes as young as eight) to fill out a quota of Jews required to enter the cantonist schools, in preparation for service in the Russian Army, in the situations where such quotas were not filled legally, due to attempts by the families to hide their children. The term is a 19th century colloquialism that comes from the Yiddish word for grabber, in itself a borrowing from Ukrainian "схапати" (to grab).
